Crypto && Coffee 128 – CipherTrace


Technology Recap:

Bitcoin:

  • Bitcoin Core merged support for a mempoolfullrbf configuration option which defaults to the existing behavior of only allowing RBF (Replace-by-Fee) replacement of transactions containing the BIP-125 signal. 

  • Sparrow Wallet v1.7.0 has been released with Linux aarch64 support, implementation of Sparrow Terminal, cancel transaction operations for RBF, Jade support and more! 

  • Lightning Labs releases lnd v0.15.4-beta which aims to solve the syncing issue across the Lightning Network due to btcd’s wire parsing library. 

Ethereum:

  • Vitalik Buterin updated his doc on single-slot finality and the mechanisms around Ethereum staking. 

  • Scroll, one of the native zkEVMs, aims to educate users around polynomial commitment schemes and what goes into Ethereum’s scaling solutions. 

  • proposal on ETH Research aims to explore the idea of block proposer auctions being used to burn MEV. 

  • Pintail dives into on-chain analysis of Ethereum since the merge, various implications for validators and more! 

  • Erigon releases v2.29.0 which fixes panics in the txpool when running as a block proposer, further optimizations to RPC methods, and fixes intermittent halts due to POS reverse downloads. 

  • Vitalik Buterin shares an updated roadmap diagram for Ethereum. 

Other Chains: 

  • Sommelier Finance has successfully brought the complexity of accessing active management in DeFi down to a simple DEX swap through a new asset class – strategy tokens. 

  • ARCx details their next steps towards leading the way in on-chain identity and reputation through taking their project private. 

  • Arbitrum shares that the new Arbitrum Nova block explorer is now live! 

  • WalletConnect Sign v2.0 has entered production! This final release means that the team is officially kicking off migration from WalletConnect v1.0 to v2.0. 

  • BitGo rolls out Wrapped Dogecoin, wDoge, on Ethereum. 

  • Armada Network is launched, aiming to be the only frontend hosting solution that is fully decentralized, secure, and easy to use. 

  • Neon Labs plans to support EVM on Solana on December 12th, 2022. 

  • DefiLlama launched Delta Neutral Yields, a new product that leverages their database to find opportunities where one can borrow a token and then farm it.

  • OpenZeppelin Contracts releases Cairo v0.5.0 which includes a UniversalDeployer contract preset, simulation of calls in accounts, and more!

  • Tokenicons.org was announced which is a public good for web3 frontend developers. The site is a free, up-to-date collection of ERC-20 icons for EVMs. 

  • OpenZeppelin’s CLI tool for StarkNet – Nile, published a new release, v0.10.0, which adds simulation and fee estimation flags with support for declaring contracts through accounts. 

  • 0x Protocol introduces their new block explorer aiming to be the most reliable and transparent tool for their developers. 

  • Developers have published relayoor.wtf which is a fully open-sourced, permissionless, block validator that only validates block payments and produces full unfiltered blocks. 

  • Ren Protocol shares an in-depth discussion on Ren’s v2.0 MPC protocol based on FROST and how it will massively increase Ren’s scalability and decentralization. 


Hacks | Vulnerabilities | Exploits:

  • PeckShield noticed a Lido Finance validator on October 19th, 2022 that was rewarded 121.59 ETH through exploiting gas price consumption in the TransactionRequestCore contract for reward at the cost of the original owner. The exploit pays 51% of the profit to the miner, thus a huge MEV-Boost reward. 

  • HEALTH Token on BSC was exploited on October 20th, 2022 through a price manipulation vulnerability. The attacker gained a profit of 16.64 WBNB. 

  • An MEV-Boost validator was rewarded 337.95 ETH via Flashbots relay in block 15802413 via a MEV bot bribe of 337.91 ETH to front-run this transaction

  • Quickswap DEX was exploited again on October 24th, 2022 on Polygon. The attacker left a note via input data describing that the contract suffers from price manipulation bugs. 

  • ULME Token was exploited on BSC on October 25th, 2022 via an indirect price manipulation attack due to unrestricted access controls. The attacker gained ~50,646 BUSD. 

  • UVT Token was attacked on BSC on October 27th, 2022 resulting in a loss of roughly 5,010 WBNB. The attack was due to a lack of sanity checks in the smart contract. 

  • Team Finance’s TrustSwap was exploited on October 27th, 2022 for ~$11.5M through a flawed migrate() function that was exploited to transfer UniswapV2 liquidity to an attacker-controlled V3 pair with a skewed price. 

  • Deribit, the largest bitcoin options exchange by market share, lost ~$28M in a hot wallet compromise on November 1st, 2022. 

  • Solend detected an oracle attack on November 1st, 2022 resulting in $1.26M in bad debt on Solana. All affected pools: Stable, Coin98, and Kamino, have been disabled. 


Mainstream Recap:

  • The Binance and FTX drama…On November 2nd, 2022 CoinDesk released an article on Alameda Research’s balance sheet. Shortly after, people started to realize that Alameda was able to grow so fast due to their use of illiquid, locked, and low float tokens as collateral. As additional researchers dove into the data, information came to light that Alameda was using FTX customer deposits as collateral as well. Binance’s CEO, CZ, shares that Binance exited from FTX equity last year and are now dumping their FTT holdings due to the in-depth info. This pushed the market to follow and various reports are circling around how Alameda will continue and the impact this has on various projects that were financed through Alameda Research. 

  • Reuters reports that FTX has seen ~$6B in withdrawals in the past 72 hours before withdrawals were halted

  • CZ adds a note detailing internal communication on everything that has happened in the past few days. 

  • J.P. Morgan executed its first live trade on a public blockchain using tokenized deposits and verifiable credentials part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian. 

  • U.S. Attorney announces historic $3.36B cryptocurrency seizure and conviction in connection with Silk Road dark web fraud. 

  • Google Cloud announces a blockchain node service starting with Ethereum. 

  • Chainlink notes that they are helping Belgium-based SWIFT make token transfers and communicate across all blockchain platforms. 

  • Flashbots’ MEV-Boost is now live on Coinbase Cloud. ETH Staking customers can now opt-in to receive MEV rewards enabled by proper-builder separation (PBS). 

  • Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood is stepping down as CEO of Parity Technologies. His co-founder, Björn Wagner, will become the new CEO. 

  • CashApp now allows users to receive bitcoin instantly via the Lightning Network! 

  • Kraken’s NFT marketplace is now live for a select group of beta testers. 

  • Centrifuge, the first DeFi protocol to finance real-world-assets (RWAs), announced a $4M strategic funding round from prominent industry players, including Coinbase Ventures. 

  • CoinDesk reports on the turmoil of censorship within Ethereum lately and whether or not developers think the chain will fork. 

  • Celestia announces their $55M raise to launch a modular blockchain network for anyone to easily deploy their own blockchain. 

  • Matt Levine publishes The Crypto Story on Bloomberg to dive into where it came from, what it means, and why it matters. 

  • WalletConnect announces a $12.5M round which will help the team refresh their Web3Modal, adding Solana support, and finalizing Sign v2.0. 

  • The U.K. seeks to regulate Bitcoin and crypto similar to current financial instruments via a bill that recently passed the House of Commons. 

  • Brian Armstrong of Coinbase shares A Case Study of the Electoral Power of Web3 with focus on how policy changes aim to affect digital asset representation. 

  • The Block reports that Bitcoin miner, Core Scientific, will run out of cash by the end of 2022 or sooner. 

  • Hong Kong is looking to legalize retail bitcoin trading. 

  • Visa filed two trademark applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) related to digital walletsnon-fungible tokens and the metaverse.

  • Meta has selected Polygon for minting digital collectibles via Instagram. 


This Week’s Cup of Coffee:

This week, we are headed to Sacramento, CA for a cup of Festive Blend from Temple Coffee Roasters. This blend of beans from Colombia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia brings out bold flavors of honey and nougat with a balance of sweet and tart flavors. A great way to get into the holiday spirit. Sip up and enjoy!! 





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